Khiladi

Khiladi (meaning “Player”) is a 2022 Telugu action thriller written and directed by Ramesh Varma, who co-produced it with Satyanarayana Koneru under A Studios, with Pen Studios. Ravi Teja leads a cast that includes Unni Mukundan, Arjun Sarja, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Dimple Hayathi, Thakur Anoop Singh, Sachin Khedekar and Nikitin Dheer. Devi Sri Prasad composed the music. Delayed from May 2021 by the pandemic, it was released on 11 February 2022 together with a Hindi-dubbed version, drew mixed-to-negative reviews and underperformed at the box office.

What the story is about

A crime boss sends ₹10,000 crore into India to buy MLAs’ support for his father’s bid to become Chief Minister. Meanwhile Pooja, a criminology student, is researching Mohan Gandhi, a prisoner convicted of killing his whole family except his young daughter. Gandhi refuses to talk until Pooja promises to help him get bail, and then begins to tell his story: an orphan raised by a businessman, a happy family life, and a money-laundering case that drags him into the hunt for the missing fortune. The heist and its double-crosses form the rest of the film, and, as several critics noted, the story changes direction more than once.

Cast

• Ravi Teja as Mohan Gandhi
• Meenakshi Chaudhary as Pooja and Dimple Hayathi as Chitra
• Arjun Sarja as CBI officer Arjun Bharadwaj
• Unni Mukundan in an extended cameo
• Mukesh Rishi as Guru Singham and Nikitin Dheer as his son Bala Singham, with Thakur Anoop Singh, Rao Ramesh, Anasuya Bharadwaj, Murali Sharma and Vennela Kishore

How it was made

Shooting began in November 2020, with some action scenes filmed in Italy in April and May 2021. A second schedule started in June 2021 after a break during the second COVID-19 wave, and filming was completed in September 2021. Arjun Sarja joined in December 2020 and Unni Mukundan in January 2021. Aditya Music bought the audio rights.

Release and box office

Khiladi was originally scheduled for 28 May 2021; after an indefinite postponement the makers chose a theatrical release, and it opened on 11 February 2022. Deccan Herald reported that it failed to set the cash registers ringing in its first two days, and News18 reported a first-week collection of ₹18 crore. In June 2021 Salman Khan acquired the Hindi remake rights.

What critics said

Critics generally liked Ravi Teja but not the writing. Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India (2 out of 5) called it “an absurd, sometimes stylish and oddly wacky, disengaging crime thriller”, and Pinkvilla (2 out of 5) found it “template-driven”. Y. Sunita Chowdhary of The Hindu called it “an average film” that “cannot be written off completely”, while The News Minute (1.5 out of 5) called it “an unappealing mish-mash”. The Indian Express appreciated Ravi Teja but felt the songs and subplots weighed the film down.

Where to watch Khiladi

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for Khiladi on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Khiladi (2022) and the reviews and reports it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.